London, August 12: Following England’s double batting failure in their innings and 80-run fourth Test loss by Australia at Headingley, former opener Marcus Trescothick could make a sensational return to Test cricket for next week’s Ashes decider.
The left-handed Somerset opener has not played Test cricket since flying home before the start of the 2006-07 Ashes tour in Australia with what was later diagnosed as a stress-related illness.
But Somerset chief executive Richard Gould said Trescothick could play at the Oval if told he no longer had to tour. ”I believe Marcus would be more willing to end his self-imposed retirement if he was told he did not have to be available for any tours due to his much-publicised medical condition,” Gould told ‘The Times’.
”There are not many truly world-class performers and those that are, like Marcus, need to be kept on the pitch for as long as possible,” he observed While England were struggling at Headingley last week, Trescothick scored hundreds in both innings of Somerset’s drawn Division 1 County Championship match against Warwickshire.
The 33-year-old former opener is the leading England qualified batsman in English first-class cricket so far this season with 1130 runs from 18 matches at an average of over 78 with six centuries.
—–Agencies